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Thursday, March 11, 2010

PAC-10 and ACC have to go back to the drawing board

As the Pac-10 and ACC kick off their conference tournaments they both will take a minute to wonder how they got to this point. The ACC is considered to be having a down year after starting the year with two teams ranked in the top 8, but they would not see as many in the top 10 for the rest of the regular season. Perennial conference favorite North Carolina who started the year in the top 5 ( and with one first place vote) will not be participating in this year’s NCAA Tournament unless they pull off a ‘miracle on hardwood’ and win the ACC Conference Tournament, but stranger things have happened. Particularly to NC whom the last time were in this position (make or break it) made it all the way to the Final Four. Now if the ACC is having a bad year than the Pac-10 should be put out of their misery. This isn’t just bad, but possibly the worst the conference has looked since a wizard lived up the street. As it stands right now the Pac would be lucky to get two teams in the dance come next week, and if there is a major upset in the conference tournament perhaps one. Once again, much like the ACC the perennial powerhouse UCLA is scratching a mark on their prison cell each day, counting down the time until their mediocre season is over, and let’s face it their hasn’t been much to cheer for in Westwood for quite some time. Now, in their defense they did send their entire starting lineup to the show (all of which are in the rotation or starting) including names like Westbrook, Love, Farmar, Collison, MbahaMoute, and Afalo. But even so, that doesn’t explain some of the losses and their inability to close out bad teams, well, perhaps they are a bad team this year themselves. While Cal is a respectable 21-9 they lost both litmus test to Syracuse (22 points) and Ohio State, and the P-10 doesn’t have a team in the top 25 and no serious threat to go deep in the tourney. Is this a part of the new “circle of life” in college basketball, and is parity going to be the norm? Let us know here and in any of the quick links: And for the record, here are the schools who have punched their tickets to dance already. If you notice, not a lot of upsets from the mid-majors so far so the tournament is going to get the best that every conference has to offer.
Cornell, Winthrop, ETSU, Murray St., Northern Iowa, Butler, Robert Morris, Old Dominion, Siena, Wofford, Saint Mary’s, North Texas, Oakland, Montana

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